Cotton plants have fibrous, tough stalks which present problems after the cotton plants have been picked. More particularly, if left in the field the stalks can interfere with operation of equipment employed subsequently. Decomposition can in fact take up to a couple of years. The term "stalk" as employed herein includes a stalk per se and also a stalk and associated root structure.
A number of systems have been devised for removing plant stalks from a field and for shredding the plant stalks. Prior art approaches typically provide an arrangement for pulling the stalk out of the ground and then shredding the removed stalk after the stalk has completely left the ground. The following United States patents are believed to be representative of the current state of the art in this field: U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,812, issued Jun. 21, 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 3,160,214, issued Dec. 8, 1964, U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,207, issued Sep. 21, 1982, U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,828, issued Nov. 21, 1995, U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,854, issued Feb. 15, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,566, issued Mar. 25, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,003, issued Oct. 11, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,667, issued Apr. 5, 1997. Interstate Equipment and Manufacturing Corporation of Bakersfield, Calif. makes available a cotton stalk shredder incorporating structure disclosed in the above-identified U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,160,214 and 4,015,667. Pixall Corporation of Clearlake, Wis. makes available a Pixall sweet corn harvester incorporating a pair of Pixall knife rolls having sharpened chrome-plated blades that intermesh to firmly and positively crimp corn stalks and weeds and pull them down and out of structure at the stripper plates of the harvester.